The clamor for precautions preventing the use of small firearms by unauthorized persons is increasing, in particular with respect to handguns.
One can subdivide small firearms into the following groups:
Weapons Used in War:
Weapons used in war must be inexpensive and absolutely reliable. A safety, as simple as it might be, slows down the use of the weapon. Further, every soldier must be able to use every small arm he has been trained to use. For example, if his weapon is defective and he has access to the weapon of a fallen comrade, he must be able to use the comrade's weapon. Therefore, identifying/authorization devices which restrict usage of a weapon to a particular soldier are inappropriate as a rule.
Weapons Used in Civilian Life:
Military, police, and even the employees of civilian security or personal protection companies may use weapons that, upon changing of a guard or a shift can take a certain amount of time to perform an identification routine to authorize the new personnel to use a weapon. During the watch, the mission, etc., the weapon should be ready to fire as quickly as possible. However, in the case of loss, the weapon preferably becomes immediately unusable. One or more specified persons must be authorized for use. The authorization must, however, be revocable.
Sporting Weapons:
Sporting weapons can definitely require time for a user identification/authorization process that determines if the user is authorized to use the weapon. The weapon should, however, also be usable by a person other than the identified person if desired, for example, in the case of a loaned weapon. If a weapon is set aside, it does not have to become unusable immediately.
Private Defense Weapons:
Limiting authorization to identified users should be performed without entering code numbers or the like, since the user may forget the code numbers after years of not using the weapon. The batteries for an electric/electronic identification/authorization device also pose a problem, since they can overage. As a rule it will suffice if only one user of the weapon is identifiable as an authorized user.
Collector's Weapons:
Such weapons are usually kept stationary. Therefore, it is sufficient in such cases to keep the weapon stored in a safe, in a secured armory, etc. Hunting weapons that are used only rarely also fall into this category. However, frequently used hunting weapons fall under the “weapons used in civilian life” category or the “sporting weapons” category, depending on the type of use.
As far as possible, weapons manufacturers attempt to manufacture one weapon, with slight modifications, for as many of the above categories of use as possible. While large caliber small arms of the same basic design can find application in all types of use; the requirements for the individual types of use are sometimes contradictory.
Fingerprint or handprint scanning systems for identifying/authorizing gun users have already been proposed. However, these systems are unsuitable in cases where, for example, the user is wearing a glove or a bandage on his hand, or when the hand has been soiled with paint, oil or mud.
Additionally the provision of pushbuttons or the like for entering a personal identification number for enabling usage of a weapon has been proposed. However this approach requires a special construction of the weapon in order to provide storage space for the pushbuttons.
Voice and speech detection devices to identify/authorize a user of a weapon have also been proposed. These systems do not given thought to the fact that high-pitched, excited or whispering voices sound differently than voices or words that were entered calmly beforehand in the weapons shop as a reference sample.
The following publications are known: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,459,957; 5,546,690; 5,560,135; 5,570,528; 5,636,464; 5,924,232; Japanese patent document JP 0100258178AA; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,603,179; 5,303,495; 4,682,435; 4,467,545; 5,022,175; Japanese patent document JP 0040109300AA; German patent document DE-OS 198 31 690 and German patent document DE-OS 198 05 306.